And it got me to thinking, maybe worrying is a better word, about my series “Chris’ Journey Turning Different Corners” which the first book will be out in the next couple of days, but what about the second book? Will I be able to keep you wanting more? What happens if you get to the second book and say, “Oh this just sucks. She messed everything up! What was she thinking?” There are four books in the series and personally I love the first and the last book. The last book was written first as a stand alone novel and it’s my baby, but will I be able to get you to love the second and third books to get you to the last book?

Do you have a series out? Do you struggle with keeping the readers attention in the second book?

I prefer reading and writing books in a series because I get to stick with characters I already love and watch how they evolve. As with every book, some will like what you write. Some won’t. Since you can’t please everybody anyway, be encouraged to write your four-book series the way you want.

Hi Dicey!
I like reading series books too. My favorite being “The Dark Tower” series by Stephen King.
And as to your comment, “As with every book, some will like what you write. Some won’t.”
I’m finding that, that applies to every part of writing, whether it’s the genre, or a series, or just reviews you get. I posted this comment on Damon’s blog http://damonferrellmarbut.com/2012/07/07/on-making-a-bad-book-review-ones-bitch/
earlier about reviews, “I look at it this way, you can’t please all the people all the time, so write what pleases you”

I was asked by readers of my first novel to write a sequel because everybody wanted to know “what happened to Kurt”…I didn’t do it until I had a story that (I felt) was good enough to release – because I hate sequels that are released solely for the purposes of capitalizing on a successful story.
In all five of my novels there is a character named Ike. All we know about him is that he is an ex-Navy SEAL with a strong moral compass and a tendency to bend the rules. People have asked me for a pre-quel so they can learn about Ike’s past…my answer is always the same – “If I can come up with a good enough story, I’ll do it, but until then it’ll remain a mystery (even to me!).
So my take on it is – before writing a sequel or creating a series, make sure it is done well enough to do justice to the original and also to show respect to your readers/followers.

Hi Tim! Oh I will. My goal is to keep my readers engaged wanting to know what happens around the next corner. See when I wrote the final book (first Draft) I left unanswered questions as to Chris’ life and how did she get to where she was. I didn’t do it on purpose it’s just the way it turned out, but I finished it 2 days before NaNoWriMo and couldn’t figure out what to write so I wrote the first book in the hopes that I could answer some of those questions. I also wrote another stand alone novel and have had comments as to, “When’s the sequel coming out? I loved the characters. What’s going to happen to them?” And There is no sequel. It’s done.